A tale of two takeovers

I’m not Ken Bates biggest fan, I think that’s fair to say. The thing that has worried me most about Leeds United over the past few years though is short term thinking.

Not just by the board but by players, managers and fans alike. Players seeing the bright lights of the Premiership and making a move based on short term wage demands rather than long term career aspirations. Managers dropping players and saying things such as ‘They will never play for this club again’ only to pick them again two weeks later. Chairman sacking managers after a poor run of form only for them to win promotion with another club. And now fans praying that a takeover is completed as soon as possible without knowing anything about the potential new owners, their financial backing or their long term aims for the club.

The approaching fixture against Blackburn has got me thinking about takeovers. Takeovers can be extremely successful, just ask a Chelsea or Manchester City fan. With investments into the two clubs by their respective owners in excess of £1billion each they have seen success their fans could only have dreamed about ten years ago. With 4 Premier League titles, 5 FA Cups, 3 Community Shields, 1 League Cup and 1 Champions League between them since takeovers were completed they have secured their positions at the top of English and European football.

There are other sides to takeovers though. Some clubs are not bought by sheiks or oligarchs, they are bought by businessmen and run as businesses. The ones we don’t talk about across the other side of the Pennines for example. When the Glazer family purchased Manchester United they saddled the club with a lot of debt. Despite winning the Premier League 4 times and the Champions League once since the takeover many Manchester United fans are still hostile to their owners who perceive them not to be keeping up with the spending of the likes of Manchester City and Chelsea.

And finally I come to our visitors this Saturday, Blackburn Rovers. Founded in 1875 they are one of the oldest clubs in the league and have a long history and proud heritage. In 2010 Indian poultry experts Venkateshwara Hatcheries bought the club. Their website claims they are “The Father of the Indian Poultry Industry”, one thing is for certain though, they know as much about football as I do about poultry farming. Their first action as owner was to sack a manger with proven track record at clubs in their situation and replace him with a relative unknown. When things started to go wrong their communication with both fans and the clubs CEO dried up. There has been vociferous chants against the owners and manager and large protests which have fallen on deaf ears. In 2012 Blackburn were relegated and their CEO Paul Hunt was dismissed after falling fowl of the owners following a leaked memo. The memo detailed steps Hunt thought were required by the owners to avoid relegation and possibly administration. The memo was ignored by the owners and Blackburn were relegated.

I’m not saying I don’t want a takeover of Leeds United. It could be great, it could provide the investment and funds we require to take us to that next level and get us back to where we belong, the Premier League. It could however be a bad thing for the club, the new owners could be another Venkeys. For that reason I implore the prospective buyers of Leeds United to make their intentions clear. Football clubs are not just businesses, they are entrenched in our communities, they are more important to some people than families.

We’re Leeds United, we’re fed up of being kept in the dark.